


Circulate

by interabang



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Non-Chronological, Siblings, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-08 03:43:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17378924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/interabang/pseuds/interabang
Summary: With the exception of Gamora, Nebula couldn’t care less about what happened to the Guardians. Not even a little bit.





	Circulate

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to [Peril_In_Peace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peril_in_Peace/pseuds/Peril_in_Peace) for organizing this!
> 
> Written for the 'Reunion' prompt.
> 
> Note: There's implied Gamora/Peter in this, but not so much where I felt like it had to be tagged.
> 
> Additionally, the timeline jumps around toward the end. I was going to make it linear, but to me, the story flows better this way.

She doesn’t understand them.

 

They’re loud idiots who get themselves into trouble more often than not. Nebula would be shocked that they had survived for so long. That is, if she cared.

 

Which she doesn’t, really. With the exception of Gamora, Nebula couldn’t care less about what happened to the rest of them.

 

Not even a little bit.

 

* * *

 

 

The bug woman with large dark eyes is the second-least offensive of them all, after Gamora.

 

Nebula has come to that conclusion after four months and three calls with Gamora. The bug woman is always hovering in the background whenever Gamora’s interrupting Nebula during her hunt for Thanos. Whenever the bug woman isn’t wringing her hands, she’s putting them over her face.

 

“Groot, I said ‘Don’t touch that!’ for a reason!” Gamora shouts, getting up from the chair and moving away from the camera. Nebula’s stuck staring at the chair and the bug woman, who is standing behind it, clutching onto the headrest.

 

Her large, dark eyes grow even wider when, after glancing around the ship’s common area at the commotion out of Nebula’s view, she looks back at Nebula.

 

And then she ducks down behind the back of the chair.

 

“It’s fine,” Nebula says, bored after about a minute of having to stare at her antennae, peeking up behind the back of the chair. “I’m nowhere near your coordinates, so I’m not gonna bite.”

 

The bug woman slowly lifts her head up over the back of the chair, until she’s standing over it. “I’m not scared of you,” she says, her voice quivering.

 

Nebula blinks. “Okay.”

 

“It’s just... I still have much to learn about interacting with others,” the woman says, bringing her hands up over the top of the chair to start wringing them. “Drax and Peter, and Gamora, teach me as much as they can, but...” her antennae droop down a bit. “I think there are some things they can’t help me with.”

 

Nebula just stares at her.

 

The other woman’s lip quivers when she’s met with no response, but then she stands up taller, and says, in a louder tone as she throws her shoulders back in an exaggerated way, “I know! You can help me too!”

 

 _No_ , Nebula wants to growl.

 

She really wants to.

 

Two days later, after interrogating one of her old contacts on Thanos’s whereabouts and wiping his blood off her hands, she picks up her holo transmitter, and calls Mantis.

 

* * *

 

 

Nebula is never going to see eye to eye with the big one.

 

Not Quill, the other one. Drax. He’s never liked Nebula, and reminds everyone of that in his infernally loud voice when she boards the ship.

 

Gamora crosses the common area in an instant, wrapping her arms around Nebula and whispering to her, “Don’t kill him.”

“He’s not even worth the effort,” Nebula mutters - but her hands, both hanging stiffly at her sides, stop twitching toward her batons.

 

“She’s the one who helped the Ravagers capture Rocket and Groot!” Drax continues, and Gamora lets go of Nebula as she glares reproachfully at him.

 

“That was months ago,” Gamora says. “And she helped saved them, right Nebula?” Gamora glances back, her harsh expression shifting into an encouraging one.

 

Nebula nods, then, staring down Drax, adds, “Idiot.”

 

“Okay, time to head out and find this Kree base,” Quill announces, speaking faster than usual, patting Drax on the shoulder as he makes a threatening gesture at Nebula.

 

She yawns.

 

“Yeah, won’t do us much good if a couple of us die _before_ goin’ into battle,” Rocket says. “Plus, I don’t wanna clean up any blood. So you two are gonna have to play nice, got it?”

 

“Why do we need her, anyway?” Drax protests, trying to sidestep Quill. “We can find Brinon all by ourselves!”

 

“Nebula has the intel that will get us to him without raising alarm,” Gamora points out, stepping in front of Nebula.

 

“She worked for Ronan!”

 

“As did I,” Gamora reminds him.

 

Drax lets out a dismissive snort, folding his arms across his chest. “That was different.”

 

“Let me make this easier on everyone,” Quill says, then launches into some inane babbling. Nebula and Drax are far more interested in staring each other down.

 

Later, in battle after their method of stealth goes sideways, she sees the culprit who gave away their position as he slicing through three enemies.

 

But he doesn’t see the fourth one until the snarling Kree soldier drops onto him from above.

 

Drax rolls over, and Nebula springs forward, swinging her baton at his would-be killer’s head. The crack of her weapon against the Kree’s skull is extremely satisfying.

 

“You saved me,” Drax mutters, still lying on the ground and looking more frustrated than relieved at being alive. “ _You_.”

 

“If you just stay there, it’ll have been for nothing,” Nebula says. “Get up.”

 

Begrudgingly, he does, and they manage to locate the others to complete their mission, and defeat Brinon. It doesn’t count as a _real_ victory to Nebula, since he didn’t have any information on Thanos’s whereabouts.

 

That night, when she trudges back on the Guardians’ cramped and filthy ship, she sees that Drax leaves out a bowl of Yaro root for her.

 

It’s ripe.

 

* * *

 

 

Quill, Nebula had decided long ago, is a complete moron.

 

She’s on his much larger and much more disgusting ship now, the _Quadrant_ , though she prefers to think of it as Kraglin’s. He’s not quite as moronic as Quill, but his ship is still a cesspit. _Sanctuary II_ was sterilized, much more fuel efficient, and lacked bumbling crew members that nearly collided with her in the filthy corridors, no matter where she turned.

 

 _Sanctuary II_ also houses all the tools that Thanos used to replace parts of her body. So that was one point against it.

 

Anyway, Quill has to be one of the stupidest people Nebula had ever had the misfortune to meet. Which explains why she finds his musical device on a rusty pipe in one of the side halls, near the pantry. Groot or Rocket must have scooped it up and placed it there. Whether it was done out of a misguided sense of safekeeping, or to enjoy seeing Quill nearly tear ‘his’ ship apart to find the useless piece of junk, Nebula doesn’t know.

 

She also doesn’t care, as she elongates her metallic arm and grabs the device.

 

“Nebula!” Quill shouts behind her, and she turns, watching him race down the hall toward her. “Did you find it?”

 

“It was hiding in plain sight.” She considers tossing it at his face, just to see his reaction, but holds it out instead. The oaf would probably fumble the device, drop and break it. Then he would cry, and Gamora would never let Nebula hear the end of it.

 

Never mind that Yondu had given Quill his new precious music player. That didn’t matter to Nebula at all.

 

“Thank you, thank you, _thank you_ ,” he murmurs, panting as he slides to a stop in front of her and takes it out of her hand.

 

The fact that he doesn’t snatch it away from her is new. Whatever.

 

“You’re a life saver,” he continues babbling, as he turns over the device in his hands. “Literally just saved my life. I can’t begin to tell you —”

 

“— Now we’re even,” Nebula says, very quickly, and walks past him.

 

He follows her like a lost orloni, and the only reason she doesn’t turn around and punt him down the hall is because that might make Gamora upset. There are some things Nebula will never understand about her sister.

 

“Hey, wait!” Quill asks, as Nebula keeps on walking. “What d’ya mean, ‘we’re even?’ Even about _what_?”

 

Nebula stops, and behind her, she can hear him nearly trip over his own feet so that he doesn’t collide into her.

 

“You saved her. When I left her for dead, outside Knowhere,” Nebula says, her back still facing him, and then, haltingly, she adds, “I won’t forget that.”

 

“Oh,” Quill says softly. Nebula’s about to start walking again, when he hastily continues. “Yeah, well, y’know, I just saw her, out there, and felt like I had to do _something_ , and —”

 

“— That doesn’t mean that I won’t ever hesitate to sew your genitals to your face.”

 

Then she resumes walking down the hall, and this time, Quill doesn’t follow her.

 

“Yeah, okay, well...” he says, his words echoing down the corridor as she turns at the corner, “Good talk.”

 

Nebula almost smiles.

 

* * *

 

 

In the past four years, she’s almost forgotten what it feels like to be angry with Gamora.

 

“Where is she?” Nebula snarls as she enters the common area of the Guardians’ filthy ship. After she scans the place, her lip curls derisively when she doesn’t find Gamora.

 

She’s _not_ scared. Not at all.

 

“I am Groot,” the skinny tree says. He’s lounging on a chair in front of the viewscreen, the only other person on the ship. His attention is solely focused on some handheld device while, on the viewscreen, there are several video calls occurring at the same time, depicting the Guardians on one of their pathetic rescue missions.

 

“I bypassed Rocket’s security system in half an hour,” Nebula says. “Tell him he’ll have to do better than that, if he doesn’t want you all slaughtered by some lowlife Chitauri bandits.”

 

“I am Groot.”

 

“I’m not looking for him; I’m looking for Gamora.” Four years, Nebula thinks, her mind whirring. Four years and Gamora hadn’t _told her_? How could she call herself Nebula’s sister?

 

Nebula had thought she vented all her frustrations through her comm link to Gamora, about her hidden knowledge of the Soul Stone’s location. Gamora had insisted she hid the information to keep Nebula safe – “ _everyone_ safe,” she had added.

 

Nebula has known she was short on time even before she discovered Thanos had renewed his hunt for the Stones. She still risked the trip to the resting home of one of their trainers, who was near death in a solitary outpost on Mikkaz. The crone had been so delirious that she didn’t even recognize Nebula, addressing her as “Thanos’s favorite.” It took all of her willpower not to put the old bat out of her misery, which ended up working in Nebula’s favor. The old woman had divulged all she had known about Gamora meeting with her several years ago – long before Gamora started calling herself a ‘Guardian,’ and she had confessed to the old woman that she had been researching the stones’ whereabouts.

 

And that’s _just_ like Gamora, isn’t it? Her and her secrets. Were the last four years a complete lie?

 

“I am Groot.”

 

“No,” Nebula says. “I don’t care. I _don’t_.”

 

He doesn’t even look up at her.

 

For a moment, just one small moment, Nebula understands.

 

“Don’t ever...” she starts to say, then falters. Groot’s eyes dart up and lock onto hers. “Don’t ever take them for granted.”

 

Then she leaves, cursing her sister’s name.

 

* * *

 

 

“Hey. There’s something I want to show you.”

 

About three months ago, before defeating that crazy planet, Nebula would have thought of it as some kind of trap. But she follows Gamora through the forest.

 

Nebula doesn’t quite _gasp_ , technically, when Gamora moves aside a branch and they step out into a clearing. But Nebula does take in a breath faster than normal.

 

She’s staring at a swarm of brightly colored enichdor, the insects’ thin gossamer wings beating at the air as they flit around her face.

 

“I haven’t seen these since...” Nebula says, barely above a whisper.

 

Gamora smiles. “I thought you forgot about it.”

 

Nebula turns to look at her. “Never.”

 

It had been such a stupid thing. During their training, as young girls they were dropped off with their ‘siblings’ on various planets to fend for themselves, learn how to become independent and resourceful.

 

Nebula had happened upon a tiny enichdor drinking dew from a leaf, and she stood around watching it, oddly enraptured by its glittering colors.

 

Then, three Stygian girls jumped down from the tree branches above, one of them snatching it from the leaf before it could fly away.

 

“Let it _go_ , you ingrates,” Nebula had said, pulling out her batons.

 

“Or what? You’re gonna use those little bats against us?” the tallest one had sneered. Then, her expression shifted when she looked behind Nebula.

 

“She said, ‘Let it go,’” Gamora warned.

 

“Fine.” The Stygian leader threw the tiny glittering insect toward the ground.

 

“No!” Nebula had leapt forward, catching the enichdor with her palms – back when she still had both of them – and her heart, still beating in her chest, sank when she saw that its wing was too damaged for it to fly.

 

“I’m sorry, Nebula. There’s nothing else we can do,” Gamora had said, sheathing her cursed sword. The Stygians were running away, their screams of threats echoing through the woods. “Best to put it out of its misery.”

 

 _Spoken like Thanos’s favorite_ , Nebula had thought. Hot tears welled up in both of her eyes, but she blinked them away before they could fall.

 

“I can save it!” she insisted.

 

But Gamora had been right. She was _always_ right. And Nebula had hated her even more because of that.

 

She buried the enichdor alone.

 

And now, surrounded by the colorful, curious insects, one of them lands on Nebula’s shoulder as she keeps staring at Gamora.

 

Still smiling, her sister says, “I just thought that you’d like to see this.”

 

“I...” Nebula swallows. If she could cry, she would, and let her tears fall freely now.

 

“Yeah,” Gamora says simply, and they both watch the enichdors buzzing happily around them in the peaceful forest.

 

* * *

 

 

“They don’t get it,” the fox - _Rocket_ \- says off handedly, as he fixes Nebula’s left arm.

 

It’s the second time she had broken it helping them in one of their inane battles, two years after Yondu’s passing, but this time, Rocket actually offered to fix it.

 

“Get what,” she says, rather than asks.

 

Screwing another piece into place, Rocket replies, “Oh, y’know, your whole thing about trackin’ down your dad and beatin’ him to an unrecognizable pulp. Gamora thinks you’re on a suicide mission. Drax wants the kill all to himself. Groot, well, he don’t give a shit. Quill and Mantis think the farther we are from the big purple lug, the better.”

 

Before she can stop herself, she asks, “And you?”

 

Rocket makes one final adjustment to her wrist, and says, “Some things, you just gotta do yourself. When you get taken apart, and put back together, again and again, like it’s a sick, twisted game to whoever did that do you... Yeah. You make ‘em pay.”

 

“So,” Nebula says, surprised that she wants to know, “have you made _them_ pay?”

 

Rocket doesn’t respond. Instead, he puts the screwdriver back in his toolbox. In his haste, he ends up pushing it off his workbench.

 

“Stupid d’asted pile’a junk!” he shrieks, punctuating each of his words with a kick. Then he curls in on himself, pressing his small hands over his eyes.

 

After a moment, Nebula gets up.

 

And starts putting the tools back in the box.

 

Wiping his nose, Rocket watches her place the instruments back in, then begins picking them up too.

 

When they’re finished, he closes the lid on the box, and she glances over at him.

 

“Thanks,” they both mutter, at the same time.

 

They never speak about it afterward. But, years later, Rocket’s words are the ones running through Nebula’s head when Thanos’s ship finally comes into view.

 

* * *

 

 

After the battle, and defeating her father for good, Nebula finds her sister.

 

It’s almost difficult to see her, since she’s currently being embraced by all the members of the Guardians, in some pathetic-looking pile.

 

“Hey,” Gamora says when she sees Nebula, and extends her hand out to her. “You’re one of us too, you know.”

 

Nebula hesitates.

 

But only for a moment.

 


End file.
